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History of the NCAA Tournament
We are fast approaching one of, if not the best, sports tournaments of our time. The NCAA tournament is widely loved by sports fans for its large field and unpredictable upsets that happen each and every March, thus the name “March Madness.” The tournament is also very popular thanks to the bracket pools everyone can’t wait to fill out; it’s everyone’s chance to prove their knowledge of the game. For those of us that have taken part, know that it’s harder than it looks. Though we could write a whole article on the bracket pools alone, lets take a look at just how this tournament came about.
Starting back in 1939 the tournament has witnessed some of the greatest college basketball games ever. In 1985 the tournament expanded from 48 teams to 64. Now a total of 65 teams are invited to compete each year. The winners of each Division I conference tournament receive an automatic bid. The remaining 34 spots are hand picked by a committee and then broken up to four divisions where they are numbered from 1 to 16. Each division is assigned a region to play with the top seeds many times getting to play closer to home. The four regions are the South, East, Midwest, and the West. With the number one seeds going to the top 4 teams in the country, based on the combination of record, schedule, rank, and personal opinion. The field is then set up to where the #16 seeds face the #1 seeds, and #15 vs. #2, and so on. Back in 2001, the play-in game was introduced expanding the field from 64 to 65. This game is played before the actual tournament starts; usually having the two lowest seeds play for the chance to be a 16 seed.
The 3-week tournament starts when half the field plays on Thursday and the other half then plays Friday. Winners of Thursday’s game face off again on Saturday and Friday’s winners on Sunday. The field is now down to the “Sweet 16” The tournament then takes a short break till it picks up again the following Thursday. After another weekend of games we are finally down to the Final 4. These 4 teams represent the winners of each bracket and are now only 2 games away from being National Champions. The following Saturday 2 games are played to decide what two teams will face off in the up coming Monday for right to be named college basketballs best team.
While it might seem logical to pick all four #1 one seeds to make it to the Final Four, it is something that has never happened since the tournament moved to 64 teams. But there has only been two times when at least one #1 seed didn’t make it. The lowest seed ever to make it to the Final Four is a #11 seed, and the lowest team to make it to the Championship game is a #8 seed. So now you can see what makes it so hard to predict the winning bracket for your office pool. With a lot of David versus Goliath matches, a number #16 seed has yet to upset a #1 seed. While its usually safe to pick the top four teams in each region to make the second round. #5 vs. #12 is when things start getting interesting as they have only won 68% of the time, it continues to get worse the higher the seed. So when filling out this year’s bracket make sure to pick upsets, they will happen, just hope that you can pick the right ones.
Some notable facts about the tournament are UCLA University holds the all-time record of 11 National Championships, winning 10 of them from 1964 to 1975. Duke has the highest winning percentage at .752%, while Kentucky holds the most wins in the tournament at 100.
Now is also a good time to head over to Sportsbook.com and get an account up and going so you are ready for all the action of the tournament. Also, make sure to check back regularly for more NCAA Tournament related articles. Feel free to leave any comments in the comment box.
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